


when you get me alone, it's so simple

by HeartonFire



Series: no one has to know what we do [3]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Cunnilingus, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Kastle Smut Week, KastleNetwork, Love, Romance, Sex in a Car, Smut, Snowed In, ksw: wet wednesday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 08:22:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16036637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartonFire/pseuds/HeartonFire
Summary: It’s snowing so hard Karen can hardly see the road in front of her. She and Frank end up driving off the road and getting stuck in a ditch. They have to find some way to pass the time until the tow truck can reach them.





	when you get me alone, it's so simple

**Author's Note:**

> wet wednesday: snuggle time; hypothermia, snowed in, trapped in the rain

Karen’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel. Snow didn’t usually bother her, but this was a winding, unfamiliar road, and it was coming down so hard she could hardly see three feet in front of the car.

“Pull over,” Frank said quietly, turning the radio down.

“No, we can make it.” Karen strained to see through the falling snow, but it was like a wall in front of the windshield. A few lights shone weakly through the whiteout, but it was hard to see them.

“Karen,” he said gently. “Let me give you a break.”

“Frank,” she said, turning her head a little to look at him. “I’ll get us there.”

“I know.” His brown eyes were bright and he nodded at her. He trusted her. She knew he did.

She turned back to the road just in time to see red lights burning in front of them. Too close. Too soon. She slammed on the brakes and the car slid to the right. It bounced down an incline and came to a thudding stop at the bottom.

Karen groaned. She pressed tentatively on the gas and the car revved, but didn’t move. She heard the wheels spinning, but the ground was so icy, they couldn’t get any traction. Throwing her head back against the seat, she sighed and pulled out her phone. When she hung up, she threw the phone into the backseat with more force than was strictly necessary. The tow truck would be there in a half hour, and they had nothing to do but wait.

“You okay?” Frank said. His fingers tentatively grazed her hair, checking her skull, feeling for bumps. He was always unsure, touching her, like he wasn’t sure it was allowed.

“Yeah. Just stupid.” His hand didn’t leave her head.

“No,” he muttered. “No.”

“I should have listened to you.”

He smiled a little. “Maybe. But you’re not stupid. Never have been.”

“That what you like about me?” she said, searching his face for something she couldn’t even name if she tried. She felt fuzzy, like she was dreaming.

“Some of it.”

Karen stared at him. She hadn’t expected him to answer. Not really. “What else?”

His fingers fell away from her hair in a second. If it wasn’t so dark, and if she didn’t know better, she’d swear he was blushing. He looked down at his fingers, twitching against each other in an erratic rhythm. “Come on,” he mumbled.

“We’re not going anywhere for a while,” Karen said. She knew she shouldn’t push him too hard, and she had never been one to fish for compliments, especially from Frank, but it was like she couldn’t help herself. He just looked down at his hands and shook his head. “Fine. Let’s play a game.”

His head shot up and he looked at her again. “A game?” He sounded skeptical, one eyebrow arching towards his hairline.

“Yeah. I’ll tell you something I like about you, and then you tell me something you like about me.”

“Not much of a game,” he grumbled.

“I like that you don’t lie to me.”

“Knew that one already,” he said, but he shifted in his seat. “I like your writing.”

Karen rolled her eyes. “I knew that too. Okay, how about this? I like that I can rely on you.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s not how the game works.” Frank just kept looking at her. “Fine. I always know you’ll be there if I need you. Even if I think I don’t.”

“You think you don’t need me?” His voice was low now, almost somber.

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t think I do.”

Karen adjusted her weight in the seat, suddenly very conscious of how small the car was. “Come on, Frank, you know I like to do things myself. My way.” He nodded. “But you’re always there whether I’m doing it my way or not.” She tried to smile, but it was so dark in the car, she didn’t know if he could see it.

He shrugged, rolling his shoulders back. He seemed to take up more space than he had before. She wondered if this was how it felt to people who only knew him as the Punisher. Looming, dark, forbidding. But there was something else underneath. She had never been afraid of him. Not like everyone else. He was still Frank. Her Frank.

“So, that’s all I am to you? Some loyal pet who doesn’t lie and has your back when you get into some shit? Some buddy who’ll show up when you’re in trouble?” He was staring at the floor again, eyes doing their best to burn a hole in the carpet.

“What? No.” She reached out to touch his arm, but he jerked it back as soon as her fingertips grazed him. “Frank.”

“No, I get it. It’s like Lieberman said. Rawlins. I’m a weapon. You point me at something and I shoot.”

“Frank.” Karen’s heart ached. “Frank, please look at me.” He shook his head. “Please.”

He lifted his head a little. His eyes were shadowed and for the first time since they met, Karen couldn’t read him at all. She reached out to him again, and he let her. She had to make him understand.

“Frank.”

He sighed, scrunched his eyes shut like it hurt him to hear her say his name. “Karen,” he gritted out. He was tense under her touch. Still as a statue.

“Frank,” she said again. She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned towards him. She ran her fingers down the side of his face, daring to touch him again. They had never been like this. A touch of the forehead, a hug, sure, but this was different. The air seemed to go out of the space as soon as her fingers touched his stubbly cheek. “You know. You have to know.”

He blinked at her, like he had forgotten what they were talking about. Like he couldn’t think about anything beyond her hand on his face. “What?”

“You know what you mean to me.” She blushed, took her hand back, but he grabbed it before she could put it in her lap. He held it between his own, thumbs running over her knuckles and down to her wrist. Shivers raced up her spine.

“Tell me.” His voice was hoarse now, sanding down any resistance she might have to him.

“Frank.” He looked at her again and squeezed her hand. “Frank, you know.” He shook his head. “You’re not just my buddy,” she said, using his words. She had to be clear. She had to say all the things they didn’t talk about. All the things that had hung between them since that first day in the hospital. “You’re not some dog running at my beck and call. I would never think of you that way.” His fingers jerked around hers. “You’re important to me. I care about you.”

He hummed something, low in his throat. “That right?” Karen nodded. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you care about me? That’s what I can never figure out. Why do you care so goddamn much about me?”

“Because I love you!” she said, louder than she intended. She hadn’t meant to say it at all. She had never even admitted it to herself, but now, here she was, shouting it at him like he should have known. She clapped both hands over her mouth and ducked her head. Even in the dark, she knew her face was glowing red.

The car was silent for a moment. And then, everything started moving so fast, Karen hardly had time to process it.

Frank grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his lap. Her head bumped the ceiling, but she couldn’t find the space in her brain to care. His hands cupped her face, trailed down her neck, her shoulders, her waist. His eyes were wild, out of control, like she had never seen them. Even in the diner, with Schoonover, in the elevator, he had always been in control. This was something else. Something much more frightening.

“You mean it?” he said, stilling beneath her. Karen nodded, fingers running through his growing hair.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course I meant it.” As though she could say something like that to him and not mean it. They didn’t lie to each other. She wasn’t about to start now.

His arms wrapped around her back and pulled her closer. She tilted her head that last fraction of an inch and finally got what she had been waiting for since he put that gun to her chin to save them both.

Everything fell away. The snow, the car, the crash. Anything that wasn’t Frank and his lips and his hands might as well not even exist.

His fingers danced along the hem of her shirt and she pulled it up and over her head, eager to feel his touch. He chuckled a little, huffing out warm breath against her lips.

“Slow down, ma’am. I haven’t done this in a while. Want to do it right.”

Karen shivered at his words, at the sensation of his hands against her ribs. His rough, callused hands left goosebumps on her skin. She bit at his lip, nipping until he growled.

He looked at her then, really looked at her. The lacy bra she had hidden under her sensible shirt for work. The flush rising in her chest. The look in her blue eyes when he smiled up at her.

He lowered his head, tongue grazing the delicate edge of her bra. A moan rumbled through Karen’s chest. Her hands fell to his head, pressed him closer.

Frank moved slowly, like he wanted to savor every inch of her. He pushed the chair back and shifted his weight, so she was laying down, nearly flat. He caged her in with his big arms on either side of her face and lowered himself to kiss her again, softer this time. The weight of him on her body was more than she could have dreamed. It was so much, she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t find that she cared, so long as he stayed where he was.

Karen tore at his shirt, desperate to feel him against her. He smiled again and pulled it off himself, a little awkwardly in the space. But she could see him, all corded muscle and scar tissue. Her hands trembled when she touched him. She traced where the bullets, the knives, the explosions had marked him. Everything that should have broken him but didn’t.

He laid a hand over hers. He was shaking too. Her big, bad protector, brought to his knees.

“We don’t have to do this now.”

Karen blinked up at him. “Oh.”

“Just don’t want our first time to be in the car, just because we’re stuck.” He scratched the back of his neck with his other hand. Maybe he had thought about this too.

“It’s not just because of that. You know that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He kissed her again, softly, slowly. His tongue pressed past her lips and tangled with hers. Karen melted beneath him, pooling into a puddle under his attention. His teeth grazed her lip and her hips snapped up, searching for friction.

His fingers moved to the top of her skirt, tracing the line below her belly button. Karen gasped and raked her fingernails over his broad shoulders. He found the zipper in the back of the skirt and tugged it down. The skirt pooled at her feet and she was all his, nothing but some lacy panties keeping her from him.

Frank growled again and pressed her hips into the seat. He seemed to be considering something. His hand splayed out on her belly, warm and strong. Karen strained against the weight of it, but Frank shook his head.

“Let me take care of you,” he said, almost shyly, peeking up at her from under his dark eyelashes. He peeled back the fabric and let it fall with her skirt. He shoved the seat back as far as it would go and settled himself between Karen’s knees. He looked up at her, eyes flaring when they met hers, and she nodded.

He grinned again and placed feather-light kisses from her knees up to her thighs. He traced her hipbones with his tongue and stroked at the space below her belly button with his rough fingers. The tension of the sensations was almost too much for Karen. She tried to press her thighs together, grind her hips against the seat, against Frank, but he held her in place.

Finally, when she was squirming underneath him, he pressed his tongue against her clit and stroked it. Karen would have had to be peeled off the ceiling if he wasn’t already holding her down. His tongue was relentless, circling, pressing, finding spots Karen didn’t even know existed.

She could hear the sounds she was making. Filthy groans were wrenching their way out of her throat and the wet, lapping sound of his tongue was bringing her right to the edge. His mouth was hot and Karen pushed against him, grinding into his face. He grinned against her, teeth nipping gently at her skin. All her muscles tensed against him, thighs tightening around his head, and she knew she was close.

He wasn’t finished with her yet. His fingers were even more demanding than his tongue. He hooked two fingers inside her to find a place that made her explode when he slid them against it. His tongue was still circling her clit and Karen felt herself falling. She let out an unholy cry as her whole body shook with the force of it. Frank grinned against her, fingers sliding out while he gave her one more kiss to her clit. Karen felt boneless, emptied, finished. She couldn’t move if she wanted to.

Frank clambered up and pressed a kiss to her mouth. She could taste herself on his lips and it nearly got her going again. But then, he rolled off and sat in the driver’s seat. Karen looked at him.

“What are you doing?”

“Tow truck’s almost here,” he said matter-of-factly, nodding down the road. “See if they can’t get us out of here.” He wiped his mouth and Karen couldn’t stop staring at him.

“But what about you?” She glanced down and saw that he couldn’t be comfortable, exactly.

“Let’s go home.” Karen shivered at the promise in his words. She pulled on her skirt and retrieved her shirt. She saw the flashing lights approaching and let Frank open the door for her to go meet the tow truck. She didn’t care what happened to the car. She had other things on her mind.

Frank squeezed her hand as she stepped up into the truck, and the flare of heat in his eyes told her he had plans of his own.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated. :)


End file.
